Meet Dominik

Senior Manager, Deloitte Consulting

Dominik leads Deloitte Switzerland’s Regulatory Transformation offering within Consulting where he specialises in the effectiveness and future of the Compliance function.

In one of his previous projects, he led the stream developing the candidature budget for the application to the Olympic Winter Games in Graubünden 2022. At the end of the engagement, his team presented the findings to the Olympic committee, involving the then minister of Sports, Ueli Maurer. Aside from his role within Deloitte, he was football referee for FC Basel and also for European competitions.

How it all started

Football moves and brings people together – this is something that always fascinated me. Being able to be so close to the game and seeing it from a unique perspective made the job as a referee really exciting for me.

I passed my refereeing test in 2002, qualifying on a yearly basis for each of the next levels up. Since 2011 have been a referee in Austria’s highest football league with about 80 games, and as of 2015 I have been a referee for FIFA. In this role, I have refereed in Basel twice, in Geneva once and once in Sion.

Greatest achievements as a referee

There have been some great highlights, like being official for Liverpool FC in the Europa League, for Celtic Glasgow in the qualification of the Champions League and Salzburg against Bayern Munich in a pre-season game. But if I have to choose one, I would say it was the semi finale this year for the U17 European Championship between Germany and Spain.

How to combine the two roles of Deloitte professional and referee

I have a very tolerant Partner who agreed from the very beginning that he will support me with my hobby, and even though I need more vacation than most of the people at Deloitte, the leadership still does everything to make my refereeing commitments possible. However, I think it is always a two-sided coin – the leadership on the other hand knows that they can trust me and that I will deliver the results I promise to deliver.

Applying experiences from sports onto business life

‘Perception is reality’ – one of my favourite slogans for refereeing but also for my everyday life at Deloitte. If you are able to make the people around you feel comfortable with what you do, how you do it and why you do it, then you are always one step ahead. My learnings from refereeing and Deloitte are symbiotic, so everything I learn on the one side I can also use on the other. A very good example is player management in refereeing when there are confrontations and tensions – this can be transferred directly into my everyday business life when handling difficult situations with the client, being under enormous tension and pressure to deliver.

Be ever curious

To progress in refereeing as well as at Deloitte, I strive to stay humble, honest and curious. Being humble means not pretending to be, or thinking you are, better or smarter than the person on the other side, because failing to prepare for the next move of your counterpart means preparing to fail. Staying honest means to keep on learning, self-reflecting and appreciating constructive criticism that comes from outside. Last but not least is being curious, to keep on striving for the next level, being determined to use what you have learned and pushing yourself, your team and your company.

Embrace diversity and be respected for who you are

What I appreciate most about Deloitte is its open culture where everybody can be themselves, and where the opinion of everybody is valued no matter what grade they are at. This establishes the foundation for a very inclusive culture in which problems are looked at and can be solved with input from different mentalities, cultures and ages. The fact is that this diversity results in solutions that are more creative, unique and superior to the ones produced individually or in homogeneous groups.

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